


Into The Hollow

by Colonial Marine (Orcbait)



Category: Gears of War (Video Games)
Genre: Drama, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Happy Ending, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-25
Updated: 2014-04-25
Packaged: 2018-01-20 18:03:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1520102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Orcbait/pseuds/Colonial%20Marine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When a report of seismic activity at Tollen arrives and sink holes appear overnight, eyebrows are raised. Seismic activity? There is no fault line anywhere near Jacinto plateau. And the Locust cannot burrow through the granite... can they? When Delta-One and Two move out to investigate the reports, the situation quickly escalates as they discover - almost by accident - what exactly caused the sink holes at Tollen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Into The Hollow

Private Sarah Baird shrugged. “That’s what they insisted on.” She was sitting on the bar table, her legs apart like a man and dangling off the edge. She gave her empty mug a spin on the table between her legs, evidently bored with the conversation. She had been put on circuit guard duties the previous day and was recounting the uneventful boredom of it.

“Seismic activity at Tollen?” Corporal Damon Baird scoffed in reply before emptying his own mug. He leaned back in his chair, balancing on the hind legs. “The closest tectonic breach is nowhere near Jacinto plateau!”

“Uh-huh!” Sarah agreed, pointing at her older brother, mug in hand. “That’s what I told them. Can’t be Locust either, the plateau’s one right big slab of granite. They can’t burrow through that!”

“M-hm,” Damon agreed as he held up his empty mug to the barkeep and indicated the both of them. Plopping his chair back on all fours he put his mug down next to hers and then leaned back and swung his feet up on the table beside her.

“They kept insisting, you know,” Sarah continued. “Said that they weren’t crazy, that they had seen it and felt it. That the freaking world shook all around them.” She rolled her eyes and accurately mimicked the Stranded slang: “ ‘Like sum kind o’ earthquake or sum’.”

“Maybe…” Damon replied as he put his hands behind his head. “They were pissing their fucking pants so hard the world seemed to shake from it!” They both laughed heartily.

“I knew I would find you two fuckwits here,” someone rumbled behind them. The siblings snapped their heads towards him as if stung. Marcus – Sergeant - Marcus Fenix was glowering at them, his arms crossed over his chest.

“What’s with the face Marcus,” Sarah chirped. “Sat down on the wrong end of a lancer or what?” Her smile broadened at the suppressed snort coming from her brother.

Marcus didn’t look amused in the slightest. “Get off your lazy arses, we have recon to do.”

“What?!” Damon exclaimed, his boots hitting the ground punctuating his exclamation. “Today’s off!”

“If you wanted off-days you should have listed for mess police,” Marcus remarked, and added before either could give their clever tongues a spin: “drop the booze and get going.”

Damon snorted derisively. “This isn’t booze, if that fucker puts more water in it I am going to bring it back up to flavour with his fucking blood.” Sarah nodded empathically.

“Get your arses to D-51,” Marcus ordered as he fixed them both a look. “If you aren’t there in 5, I’ll have your fucking pay docked.” He then turned and strode away.

“Fuck you!” echoed after him in choir.

* * *

“Unreal,” Private Ruby Chandler muttered as they looked at the grainy video feed. It showed jumpy images of Tollen or rather, what was left of Tollen: the entire city had been sunk into a massive, almost artificially round crater. She took a step closer to Private Augustus Cole despite herself, although he didn’t appear to mind overly much.

There was a similar look of consternation on Sarah’s face. “I was there yesterday,” she said, staring at the screen. “I swear, it was its plain, boring self!”

“Maybe Da was right and you need glasses aft--,” Damon suggested, but the elbow she rammed in his ribs cut his sentence short. “Bitch!” he wheezed.

“The next time a fucking bloodmount takes a bite out of you,” Sarah snapped back. “I am going to let you bleed out like the fucking pig you are!” She then turned to Marcus. “I fucking swear, it was still standing!”

“There’s no way seismics did that,” Damon pointed out, coughing as he recovered from the jab. 

“Something did that,” Cole remarked, his expression grim.

“The Locust can’t dig through the granite can they?” Ruby asked, she had her arm around Cole’s by now and gave the ground beneath their feet a look. Cole surreptitiously put his arm around her waist and tugged her to him.

“Not as far as we know,” Damon shrugged. “But what do we know, really? I am just saying: there’s no way seismics did that.”

“We heard you the first three times, smartass” Sarah snapped as she rolled her eyes.

“So, we’re to go out on recon?” Cole asked Marcus, who was their de facto leader, besides being their friend.

“We are,” Marcus confirmed.

“You joining?” Cole returned, lifting an eyebrow. These days he and Ruby were paired off with the two insufferable siblings for missions most of the time. Though he liked that Ruby was along, he did miss his friend’s stoic presence as well as his ability to deal with Baird and his equally bratty sister. Cole tried to keep them in line but he and Damon were too close friends for it to work properly and Sarah simply appeared selectively deaf. On dint of rank she occasionally listened to her brother, but that usually didn’t last either. The only one she shirked from pissing off was Marcus it seemed.

“Yea, me and Dom,” Marcus replied. “As well as, Bar and Carmine will join you four.”

“Bar?” Sarah’s face markedly fell.

Damon spat on the ground. “What’s that asshole along for?”

Marcus’ expression remained grim. “I don’t make the deploys, Baird.” It wasn’t obvious who he addressed. Perhaps both.

“Another Carmine?” Ruby wondered softly, and glanced at Cole, who shrugged.

* * *

The King Raven helicopter brought all of them to the ruins of Tollen in no time. From the air the scene was even more dramatic than the grainy video feed had suggested. The entire city, with its tall buildings and high walkways, was in complete ruins. Buildings had toppled and broken as if flattened twigs of grass, others had collapsed all together. The air was full of dust, clouds of it obscuring the watery sun. Aside from the whoosh of the helicopter blades it was eerily quiet. Yesterday, Tollen had been a major metropolis and refuge. Today, it was a desolate ghost city. There was no sign of life at all. 

“Where did the civvies tell you about the tremors, Baird?” Marcus inquired as he leaned out of the helicopter, surveying the ruined landscape below.

Sarah broke off her conversation with Ruby and looked up, gathering from the remark that he’d meant her. She got up and joined him at the port. “Over yonder, at Radio Club 7,” she said as she pointed out the skeletal ruins of the spire that had been the HQ of the popular station and late night hang-out.

“What the hell were you doing there?” Damon demanded as he rose from his seat beside Carmine, as if of a mind to walk over and shake the answer from her. Ruby pulled her legs up to her chest and leaned against Cole, rolling her eyes as she glanced at him. Cole suppressed a slight grin.

Sarah pulled a face. “Patrolling, mom.”

“You’re going to tell us when next time you go ‘patrolling’, Baird?” Bar remarked from beside her, bodily butting in between her and Marcus. Marcus scowled severely, but either he had not seen it or he simply ignored it.

“Go fuck yourself, Titus,” Sarah snapped.

“C’mon, even you can’t always be this frozen,” he returned, grinning broadly as he nudged her shoulder with his.

“I don’t think you should—,” Carmine started from beside them, but everybody ignored him.

“Watch me,” Sarah growled, trying to shove Titus out of her way with little success. He didn’t budge. “Fucking piss off!” she shouted at him, all but standing on her toes to be face to face.

Marcus drew himself up behind Titus, but there was no need. With a force that rung the helicopter’s steel plating the gear was suddenly slammed out of the way and against the wall, Damon all but on top of him and his hand around Titus’ throat. “She said. Fucking. Piss. Off.” He growled through clenched teeth, their noses pressed together. Titus struggled to say something, but nothing but a strangled noise came out as he gasped for air.

“Fuck, Damon let him go,” Marcus ordered as he moved to intervene. 

Cole had risen from his seat too and grabbed his long-time friend by the shoulders. “He got your point, bro,” Cole said as he pulled him away, bracing himself in case he needed to wrestle the other gear back to his seat. “No need to choke the life out of him.”

“You ok?” Ruby inquired softly, scrutinising Sarah as if looking for some bodily hurt.

“Yes, fine,” Sarah said tersely as she plopped down on the now vacant seat beside her. “I am going to fucking stab him next time.”

Ruby took her hand and squeezed it. “There won’t be a next time,” she said decidedly. “You’re with me and Cole and Damon now; this is just a stupid flunk mission together.” Ruby suspected this sort of situations was why Marcus had unofficially switched their squads around. That and removing himself from their squad to include Sarah meant he’d replace her and be in the same squad as Dom. Ruby smiled a little despite herself as she watched their sergeant put Titus back in line for his stupid behaviour. Damon came stalking towards them, the fury of hell still smoldering in his blue eyes. He pointedly sat down on the empty seat beside his sister, the one seat closest to where the others sat, and proceeded to glare in their direction.

“That was the fucking last time, Bar,” Marcus said, glaring at the gear.

Titus nodded reluctantly and dropped in the seat next to Cole, who’d taken Damon’s now that he’d gone to sit with the girls instead. “How the hell she suddenly got a bloke?” Bar huffed angrily.

“Brother,” Cole amended.

Titus looked at him and pulled a face. “Fuck that shit.”

* * *

Once on the ground among the ruined buildings the feel of the ghost city was only reinforced. The crater threw it in shade despite it being midday and clouds of dust obscured the watery sunlight. They had to use flashlights and wear rebreather masks against the dust grit and possible imulsion gas.

“Command – Anya, Delta-One here, can you hear me?” Marcus said as he pressed the link-bead in his ear, testing the reception.

“Loud and clear, Marcus,” came Anya’s response from the King Raven circling above. “Keep us posted, command out.”

Ruby pointed her lancer this way and that, her flashlight taped to it. The light pierced only a few dozen metres through the shrouded gloom. “Where to?”

“Where they told Baird they had felt the tremors,” Marcus replied as he and Cole joined her.

“Sarah?” Ruby asked as she looked around for her. Sarah appeared at her side at that, her brother sticking to her like a second shadow, keeping himself bodily between her and Bar. Ruby couldn’t blame him. Titus was an ass.

“At the out fields, past the spire,” Sarah said as she frowned slightly, recalling the location. “Across the old parking lots.”

“All right, get walking,” Marcus ordered. “Stay sharp,” he added, his face grim. “I don’t like this quiet.” They vanned out, their lancers at hand. It was so quiet in the ruined city. Too quiet. 

* * *

The old parking lots behind the spire were oddly intact. If you ignored the ruins all around, it didn’t look much different than it would have yesterday. Cars and even trucks were still standing there as if their owners would soon come to claim them. They were advancing across the parking lot when suddenly there was a loud roar that echoed between the ruined buildings. Marcus signalled them to cover, and not a moment too soon for grubs appeared from the street to their right. They roared in glee when they saw the gears and immediately opened fire.

Cole and Ruby jumped behind the nearest car for cover, followed by Bar. They quickly took turns shooting over the hood.

“Fuck, where did they suddenly come from?!” Ruby cursed as she blasted an on storming grub apart, and then another, and the head of a third.

“Where they always come from?” volunteered Bar, taking her spot as she ducked down to reload. With a furious cry he unleashed his own deluge of fire. They were barely putting a dent in the grubs despite having killed over half a dozen between the two of them already.

“How the hell did they get here, they can’t burrow through granite,” Ruby exclaimed, jamming a new magazine in her lancer.

“Guess Baird was wrong!” Cole replied as he jumped up to take Bar's place.

“I hate it when he’s wrong,” Ruby growled as she crouched. “Almost as much as when he’s right.”

“Fuck we need to get out of here,” Cole called as he shot the nearest grub all but point blank. 

“The others…!” Ruby started.

“No time!” Cole rebuked as he grabbed her by the shoulder and yanked her up on her feet. Bar turned and let loose several more shots as they retreated as fast as possible.

“Cole! Chandler! Bar! Over here!” It was Marcus, further ahead behind a truck together with Dom and Carmine. He beckoned them from across the parking space.

“Fuck this,” Bar cursed at the stretch of open ground between them. “On three?”

Cole and Ruby nodded, bracing for the run.

“1… 2…” Bar counted, waiting till some of the firing grubs reloaded. “3!!!”

They sprinted across. Ruby ran as fast as she could, but her strides were smaller than the men’s. And she was nowhere near as fast as Cole, the ex-Trashball player seeming to bound ahead of them. Bullets whistled past her ears and she willed her legs to move faster, her heart pounding in her ears. As the two men passed her they each grabbed her by an upper arm and simply dragged her along with them, all but lifting her off the ground and carrying the three of them across the parking lot on their longer strides. When they neared them Cole all but flung her in the general direction of Marcus, as he himself dived for cover behind the truck. 

Ruby hurtled forward, unable to stop herself. The impact against their sergeant was not unlike hitting a brick wall. He simply stepped back, braced a leg and abruptly ended her uncontrolled momentum full stop. Flattened against his broad chest, stars exploded into Ruby’s sight as the air was knocked flat out of her lungs.

“You ok?” he asked gruffly, his blue eyes observing her intently as he steadied her by the shoulders.

Blinking the stars away as she gasped for air Ruby glanced up, and their noses brushed past one another. She froze, suddenly keenly aware of exactly how close they stood. And then she shied away immediately. “Yea, fine!” she squeaked, taking a few steps back and casting her gaze anywhere but across his. Marcus scrutinised her as if he was counting the amount of limbs still on her. “I am fine, really,” she said again, forcing herself under control. Hoisting her lancer, she swiftly moved to join Dom, who was shooting grubs from behind the truck.

“Those two dipshits not with you?” Cole inquired, looking around at Marcus as he took up a spot.

“Thought they were with you?” Marcus replied as he did the same.

Cole shook his head. “No, they were not,” he answered, quite needlessly.

“Fuck,” Marcus cursed, followed by a more creative string of plaintive. He then pressed the link-bead in his ear. “Command, Delta-One here – we ran in a bit of trouble, and half of Delta-Two is missing, requesting advice.” 

“Delta-One, stand-by,” Anya replied. Again they heard the echoing roar they had heard earlier, but it was now closer by.

“What the hell is that shit?” Cole wondered out loud.

Ruby pulled a face as she took aim. “I don’t want to fucking know.”

“Extraction is impossible here,” Anya’s voice returned. “But the Townsen Square due east of your position is sufficiently open. Find Corporal and Private Baird, and then go there for pick up. Command out.”

“Great. We’ll recontact there,” Marcus replied, clearly irritated. “Delta-One out.” He then switched channel to local com. “Baird, wherever the fuck you two are, get your scrawny asses to Townsen Square postal station right fucking now!” Radio static was his only response. “Fucking wonderful,” he cussed, and glanced around at the situation. “Pull back!” he ordered, and moved to a large trailer further ahead.

“We’re not leaving them behind, are we?” Carmine inquired as he hurried to follow the others. “We can’t just leave them, I know they’re annoying, but!”

“They’ll be fine,” Marcus replied curtly.

“No need to worry, Eryck,” Ruby said as she patted the recruit on his shoulder. “They can take care of themselves.”

* * *

They steadily moved further east, laying cover fire to slow the grubs pursuing them, making their way in the direction of Townsen Square, and the postal station.

“There they are!” Ruby suddenly called, only just managing above the din of their guns.

Surely enough, both corporal and private Baird appeared on a rooftop some ways back the direction they had come from. The two of them were running and jumping along the ruined rooftops towards them. They were almost there, when they suddenly clambered down in all haste. They jumped down among the cars only metres from the grubs, which collectively turned to the new, far closer and less well covered targets.

“What the hell?!” Ruby exclaimed. They’d been far safer up there. Why had they gone down? And it didn’t end there. They all but immediately broke cover and started sprinting towards their companions' position, ignorant of the bullets zipping past them.

“I’ll give them cover!” Carmine exclaimed when he saw them.

“NO STAY DOWN!” Marcus and Dom shouted practically in unison but it was too late. Eryck had barely risen or a stray bullet hit him square in the chest, ripping clean through him. He fell back with a crash, his lancer falling from his numb hands. He groaned pitifully.

“Not again,” Marcus growled under his breath as he hurried towards the fallen gear, running low. Ruby was already at his side, holding his head slightly.

“I-I am s-so tired…” Carmine said feebly. “I-it hurts.”

Ruby shushed gently, glancing only briefly up when Marcus joined her. “Just go and sleep, it’ll be ok.” She smiled a little, patting the recruit’s hand.

At that moment Damon came jumping across their improvised barricade, Sarah at his heels. “Missed me?” he called, grinning broadly as if the world’s biggest joke was about to be told. Sarah was beaming too.

“No!” Ruby snapped, glaring at them and throwing her gaze pointedly at the hurt gear in front of her.  
Damon rolled his eyes. “Not this again…” At the least, Sarah had the sense to elbow him.

“I-I am s-sorry, Sarge…” Carmine stuttered.

“You did ok, Carmine, they’re here now,” Marcus replied, his expression more grim than ever.

“I-I…” Carmine started to reply, but he faltered, and his breath stopped.

With a roar of outrage Marcus rose and kicked the truck’s tire, followed by a string of curses.

“Where the hell were you two?” Dom inquired, looking the two gears up and down. And then added, when they both grinned: “and what the fuck is so bloody fucking funny?!”

“Any moment now,” Sarah replied, though the comment seemed more directed to Damon than Dom.  
Dom began to reply but then he heard something, and a moment later so did the others. A distant explosion, and then another, and another, coming steadily closer.

“What the fuck is that?” Marcus demanded as he rounded on Damon and Sarah, his anger over losing yet another recruit clearly not entirely gone yet.

Damon grinned broadly. “Plan B!”

The noise was coming rapidly closer now, and the grubs had noticed it too for they momentarily ceased shooting. 

“What the…” Cole started, as a crack shot up through the asphalt near the ruined spire. He reached beside him, but Ruby had already stepped closer and slightly behind him.

“Wait for it…” Damon said as he pushed his goggles down. When he and Sarah crouched down against the truck with their fingers in their ears, the others knew best to take cue and follow. They had barely ducked down when the chain reaction reached the blast charges set on the low, open levels of the ruin. The explosion that followed made the truck slip and set a ringing beep in their ears. But that was barely the worst of it, for seconds later more cracks shot up, and within moments the entire remnant spire started toppling down, flinging slabs of reinforced concrete down across the parking lot, collapsing across the locust and only metres away from their hiding place.

“Fuck,” Ruby swore, eyeing how close some of the debris had fallen.

“That could have gone horrifically wrong way too easily,” Dom observed. Marcus looked as if he was about to explode in an even more dramatic fashion than the spire, but then reigned himself back in.

Damon shrugged. “We wouldn’t have been around to lament it.”

“Did you feel that?” Ruby said suddenly, putting a hand to the asphalt beneath them. There was the faintest of tremors.

“Did you set more charges?” Marcus asked sharply, eying the two siblings. They shook their heads almost in unison. His eyes narrowed in suspicion.

“Swear,” Sarah said, holding up two fingers.

“Guys…” Dom said as he gazed across the barricade at the enormous hole in the ground where only moments ago the debris piles of the spire had been. There were large cracks shooting out across the asphalt from there, towards them.

“Fuck! Run!” Marcus roared.

Nobody needed encouragement. Quick as they could they sprinted away, towards Townsen Square. The rumbling became worse, almost like groaning, as the cracks shot after and around them. And then the ground started crumbling away. Try as they might, they could not out run it. Within seconds the ground fell away beneath their feet, throwing them down into the depths below.  
* * *

“You OK, baby?” A flashlight beam blinded Ruby.

“Blind but otherwise fine,” Ruby coughed as she scrambled up from the ground. Pain from a dozen new cuts and bruises shot through her body and nearly made her drop again. Someone grabbed her by the waist and pulled her up to her feet. The flashlight beam went away. In the backwash, she could see Cole, a concerned frown on his face. She clicked her own flashlight from her belt and cast it around. It was so dark. Where were they? There was debris everywhere, and the dust hadn’t settled yet.

“We fell down a good long way,” Cole said. Ruby looked up. She couldn’t even see the air above. How the hell had they survived this? He handed her a lancer. She wasn’t sure it was her own.

“Get the fuck away from me with that shit!” a familiar voice snapped, somewhere to her right. “Weren’t you going to let me bleed out like a pig?”

“Fuck you Damon, keep still!”

Ruby turned, peering through the gloom. Her beam struck the familiar outlines of Damon and Sarah. Even from this distance she could see the ugly gash that cut across Damon’s cheek. It bled ferociously. Sarah seemed intent on putting something on it.

“Stay fucking still princess,” Sarah cussed as she slapped her brother’s hands away and grabbed his face, pressing a strip of cloth against his cheek. “You see that imulsion over there? Who knows what shit is in that fucking crap.” The string of profanities at his sister’s address that left Damon even made Cole pull a face for a moment.

“That shit fucking stings,” he complained when she finally let go. The cut had stopped bleeding.

“Means its cleaning, suck it up tinkerboy,” Sarah scoffed. She then saw Cole and Ruby, and walked over to them. “Glad you’re both whole and hearty,” she assessed, looking them over briefly.

“Where are we?” Ruby asked, though she had a creeping suspicion. She didn’t like the scowl that appeared on Sarah’s face one bit. 

Damon strode over then too, grinning wryly as he slung his lancer onto his shoulder. “Welcome to the suck!”

“We’re in the Hollow,” Sarah elaborated quite needlessly.

* * *

“The Hollow?” Ruby echoed. She’d suspected as much, of course, but it somehow felt unreal. For a few blissful minutes she’d hoped they’d just caved into the lower floors of the parking lots.

“Bloody fine charges you two set,” Cole scoffed.

“How was I supposed to know this fucking rock slab is as hollow as a bloody cheese?” Damon retorted.

“Shut the fuck up,” Sarah interjected. “We need to get out of here, asap.” She pressed the link-bead in her ear. “Command – Delta Two here.” She waited a moment. “Command? Anya?”

“Where are Marcus and Dom? And Bar?” Ruby asked, realising the others were not with them.

“I found the jerkass,” Damon said, pointing his thumb over his shoulder. “Caved his skull in on a rock on the way down.” He didn’t seem overly perturbed.

Ruby frowned. Bar could be a complete ass, but he didn’t deserve to die. “Don’t be a dick, Damon,” she said curtly.

“Anyone? Anya?!” Sarah called again. She let go of the link-bead. “I guess that only works for Marcus…”

“We’re fucked,” Damon concluded decidedly.

“Will you shut the fuck up already?” Ruby suddenly burst at him. “We’re going to find Marcus and Dom and then get the hell out. Sarah, did you try local com?”

“Right, no,” Sarah replied, and tried so immediately. “Marcus, Dom? Can you hear me?” she said. There was some static noise and then, much to their relief, their sergeant’s voice crackled over the com.

“Yea Sarah, you all ok?” The static made it difficult to understand Marcus.

“No, Bar managed to get his skull smashed in on the way down. Rest of us are well enough,” she glanced sideways at her brother for a moment. “Where are you two?”

“Beats me,” Marcus’ voice crackled back. “We’re going to try and find a way up. You do the same, and we’ll recontact.”

“Marcus,” Sarah replied before he broke the link.

“Yes?”

“Local com is only ten clicks,” she returned.

“I know.” There was static for a moment. “When you reach the surface, you can contact command again.”

“Right.” Sarah replied, none too happy. “Right, Delta-Two out.”

“Delta-One out.” Then the link went dead.

“You heard the boss man,” Cole said with somewhat forced cheer as he patted Ruby’s shoulder. “To the surface it is.”

Ruby pointed her flashlight around. Now that the dust and debris had settled, it was obvious they were in a large tunnel. There were several other tunnels branching off at intervals. “Which way do you recon it is?”

Cole grinned and gave her shoulder a squeeze. “Up!”

* * *

They had been travelling for hours. Or days, who knew? It felt like short of forever. The tunnels were all alike: large, weirdly regular, grey. And here and there streaked with traces of imulsion, or leaking the yellow stuff from the walls. They gave it a wide breadth.

“What the hell are you doing?” Cole said when Damon suddenly veered off and pulled a device from his belt, waving it past one of the walls.

“Pissing,” he replied sarcastically. “Sar, what’s the numbers?”

“78-82 on 372 magnitudes,” Sarah replied, who stood some distance behind them. Ruby hadn’t even noticed her stop. She’d been right beside her just a moment ago!

“Can you please play with your toys when we are the fuck out of here?” Ruby exclaimed. What the hell was wrong with these two? They were missing some cogs upstairs, for sure. Whatever it was they were doing, it could hardly be more important than getting back to the surface.

“There are tremors here, if you hadn’t noticed yet,” Sarah replied defensively. “We’ve been measuring their strength and probable origin.”

“You know, the tremors we were send here for in the first place?” Damon added sarcastically. “Would be suck if we had to come here again ‘cause we didn’t get Hoffman what he wanted the first time around.”

“Where’s it from then?” Cole asked.

Damon shrugged. “Getting closer to it.”

“Lovely,” Ruby sighed.

* * *

They continued on, now largely following the Bairds’ directions. At least, the path they took didn’t seem to lead them further down into the ground. In fact, the path felt as if it went slightly up. Suddenly the tunnel widened and opened up into an impossibly wide cavern spanning what easily amounted to a subterranean sea. The only way across was a narrow stone span some hundred metres long.

“You got to be kidding me,” Ruby said, eyeing the barely three feet wide stone bridge. “We got to cross that shit?”

“Signal gets stronger that way,” Sarah said by way of a confirmation.

Ruby raised her hands to the sky. “Why me? Why?”

“C’mon baby, it ain’t that high – water will break ya fall if it goes wrong,” Cole returned as he strode up to the two women.

“The water will break you all right,” Damon commented from up ahead. He’d already started onto the bridge, seismic measure in hand and lancer over his shoulder as if he was taking a stroll down the park.

“Just don’t look down,” Sarah said with a wink, patting Ruby reassuringly on the shoulder as she pressed past Ruby and followed her brother up the bridge, on a bloody trot! When she reached him, they exchanged words and then slaps, and the look of them struggling and balancing around each other on there made Ruby queasy to her stomach with fright. She hated heights. She fucking hated heights. And bridges. Especially combined. Fuck that shit!

“It’ll be ok,” Cole said, and grabbed her hand. “I won’t let you fall,” he added with a wink.

Momentarily distracted, Ruby smiled. His large hand felt nice around hers. Reassuring. She grasped it in turn. “That would be nice.”

Cole cracked a smile. “C’mon baby.” He gave her hand a little tug.

Ruby nodded and steeled herself. “Slowly!” she urged him.

“Sure.” Cole said, and resolutely led her towards the bridge. “Just keep looking straight ahead.”

“It’s a pavement. In a park. Completely safe.” Ruby said firmly, fixating her eyes on the end of the path. “Nothing to be afraid of.”

“Exactly cutey,” Cole replied cheerfully, giving her hand a squeeze. “Let’s walk down the park.”

* * *

It took them a while, but they met up with Sarah and Damon about halfway. The other two were evidently waiting for them.

“Somewhere this century would be nice!” Damon called out once they were within earshot.

“Shut the fuck up, Damon!” Ruby shouted back, keeping her gaze fixed as she walked, trying to not dig her nails into Cole’s hand in fright. In all honesty, she was this close to climbing up on his neck and clinging on for dear life squealing like a little girl in fright. Fortunately, her dignity had some weight of strength left, and she kept resolutely walking, holding on to his hand like a life-line.

“Hey, Damon!” she heard Sarah call.

“Yeah, what sis?” he replied. Their voices carried quite the distance across the open expanse.

“What do you recon that is?” Sarah asked. 

Ruby didn’t like the sound of that. Daring to move her gaze from the end of the bridge, she glanced briefly in the direction of the two siblings. They were both leaning way too far over the edge, looking down at the water apparently. As if magnetised, her gaze followed theirs. And saw the dark patch of water. A squeal left Ruby and her knees nearly went out from under her, her stomach turning upside down as she registered the nauseating distance. Her hand reflexively closed into a death grip around Cole’s.

“Hold it there,” he said calmly as she kicked her feet to get them back under her, kicking lose debris from the stone bridge. The small plunges as they struck the water moments later echoed back up unnaturally loud. “It’s just some rock under there, baby,” Cole said as he dragged her to her side. “Come, nearly there cutey.” Ruby nodded, keeping her gaze fixed on the end of the path again. And that was a good thing, for if she hadn’t, she would have noticed the dark patch had gone.

“Hm, the magnitude of the tremors is picking up,” Sarah remarked, frowning, as she glanced at the lightly beeping device she was holding. She held it up to her brother. “Eh?”

“Could be your shaking knees causing it,” Damon retorted, and was rewarded with a sound smack at his hurt cheek. “Fuck, bitch that hurt!”

“That was the idea, moron,” Sarah bit back. The beeping of the small device increased. “What the hell? You think it got a knock in our fall after all?” She held it up to inspect it.

Cole and Ruby were closer now, in fact, Ruby was about to tell them to get the fuck on the move again. But she didn’t. Instead, she froze. Aghast. For the impossible happened, and it happened in a split second. 

With an unearthly roar something reared up from the waters below. Something big. Something impossibly big. A worm. A gigantic worm. With enormous teeth, its opening maw as big as the tunnels they had come from. It reared up and up, towards them. It went so fast. One moment they were fine. The next, the thing crashed through the part of the bridge ahead of them as it lunged for them. Ruby was thrown back as Cole lunged back the way they had come, pulling her along with him out of harm’s way. She heard a high pitched scream and wasn’t at all certain it was Sarah. Cole let go of her. In her fright Ruby clawed at him, trying to get a hold of him again. But he was up and sprinting back. She looked past his retreating back just in time to see Damon disappear over the broken edge of the bridge. Sarah was nowhere in sight.

Cole threw himself flat down on the stone touch-down style, flung an arm over the edge and clamped onto Damon’s forearm, just in time. “No you aren’t buddy,” he growled, straining as Damon grabbed his arm in turn. His friend weighed heavier than he had thought! “Climb the fuck up!”

“I can’t,” Damon replied, his voice just as strained.

“Why the hell not?!” It took Cole precious seconds before he realised why not: Sarah was clinging on to Damon’s free hand. She dangled below them, legs kicking frantically as she clung to her brother’s arm, desperately trying to pull herself up. Her arms trembled with effort and her fingers slipped whenever she reached for Damon’s bare shoulder or upper arm. The long scratches lining his skin proof of her tries.

Cole recognised her fatigue immediately; one didn’t need sports training to see that. Straining, bracing his weight, he put his other arm across the edge too. “Sarah, grab my hand,” he growled, reaching down as far as he could without tipping his weight and slipping. She reached up but there were inches of air between them. Scowling she flung her weight behind it, and their fingertips brushed tentatively close past each other but it was not enough. A string of profanities escaped Damon when her weight came back down and his grasp on her began to slip.

“Fuck. Sarah!” Damon called, his knuckles going white as he clenched his hand around her wrist. She tried to find purchase, but her strength was flagging. Their hands, slick from sweat and strained with effort, began to cramp and give in despite their effort. Below them, the worm uttered its unearthly roar.

“Run you fucking moron!” Damon spat at Cole through gritted teeth. And then they were gone.

In an unreal blur Cole rose and ran back, wrenching Ruby away from the stone she was clinging onto for dear life, her pretty face ashen and drawn into a mask of sheer terror. When she wouldn’t stand, he simply lifted her up and ran. And ran. Back down the bridge, through the tunnel they’d come from. Somewhere left. Somewhere right. Somewhere some other direction. He ran until his legs began to ache and his heart pounded in his chest as if it was going to burst. He started to trot but kept going, then walking, to finally sag down against a stone wall. Winded, his head pounding ferociously.

Ruby crumbled in his grasp, her hands balling into fists as she struggled to control herself. “Why?” she called out. Too much. It was too much at once. The locust attack, Marcus and Dom lost, and now Sarah and Damon were probably… probably… Her mind blocked at forming their fate. She felt her eyes grow moist and fought against the tears. She pounded her fist against Cole’s chest. “Why didn’t we drag them up?” she shouted, her voice breaking. “Why didn’t you hold on to him?!” she cried. She knew he couldn’t help it. She knew that. But she couldn’t help herself.

Cole gathered her against him and hugged her tightly. 

“I couldn’t, because” he replied softly, sadness and guilt heavy in his voice as he held her as close as physically possible. “When Sarah slipped, Damon let go.”

* * *

They sat there for short of an eternity, holding on to each other. Cole gently rubbed her back as Ruby’s involuntary crying subsided into sobs. “Just let it out, it’s ok Ruby.”

She looked up at him. He hardly ever called her by her name. Always he said ‘baby’ or ‘cutey’ or ‘hotstuff’. He looked down at her and smiled, somewhat feebly. 

“I…” Ruby started, but she wasn’t sure what she’d meant to say.

Cole briefly held her firmer, momentarily squeezing her to his chest. “It’s ok.”

She looked up at him and as her grief subsided, another emotion reared in its wake, and one she had not anticipated: relief. Sheer relief that he, that Cole, was still with her. They were lost in hell, alone, but he was here. Not Dom or Marcus or any of the other guys, he was, and she was here because he had kept his head on straight. Because he’d kept his head straight and plucked her off that bridge. She wouldn’t have been here without him. And as she realised that, she realised how strongly she felt for him. They’d been playing at it for as long as she could remember, but now, that seemed all rather silly. He cared for her, very much. As much as she cared for him.

Ruby leaned up in his embrace and kissed his cheek. He looked down at her, slightly surprised. Then, even more so, when she tentatively pressed a kiss to his lips. The moment lasted and for a terrible instant his lack of response made her fear he’d reject it. That she’d been wrong - that their antics had just been play, and dragging her away his duty to a squad mate. Nothing more.

But then his arm around her tightened, his large hand reached up to gently cup the side of her face and he returned her kiss. A small noise escaped her lips as the kiss grew quickly intimate. The world simply ceased to exist for her, living and breathing that kiss. She could have died in that kiss and she would not have been sorry for it.

“Ruby…” he started, his voice raw. But she put a hand to his mouth and when he quieted, she kissed him again. They kissed passionately, absorbed in the other’s nearness. All by themselves her hands started to wander as they kissed, mapping the shape of his shoulders and arms, across his chest, everywhere. He did the same, his arm resting at her waist, dropping slightly, brushing past her bum and gently squeezing, his other hand moving from her jaw to trail her neck, shoulder, and the side of her body to her waist.

“I need you,” Ruby said softly, her voice little more than a whispered breath as she pressed herself against his chest, her arms moving around his neck. A low groan escaped him at her words and that alone made her whimper faintly. His nearness had fully taken over her thoughts, it was all that mattered. She needed him, so very much.

When he did not advance his actions, she tugged at his chest armour, pulling at one of the shoulder straps, making it clear beyond a doubt what she’d meant. And now that he realised this, he didn’t need any more encouragement. He had always wanted her, but he had not wanted to offend her. She was special, not at all like some sports chick. She had skills, and character, and she was unbelievably pretty too. He shifted and shrugged his armour off without effort or care, but held her to him as he gently peeled away her armour, as if she might break otherwise. And all the while she kept pressing kisses to him, his jaw, his neck, his chest, and her hands left warm, lingering imprints on his skin wherever they touched.

Ruby let out a soft mewl as he undressed her, enjoying the sensation of his hands across her skin as he tugged the rough armour away. She could barely control herself, his touch setting sparks across her nerves and in the pit of her stomach. She pawed at his skin, urging him to do it faster and reaching for the pants he was still wearing. Her arousal spiked impossibly when her hands brushed past his hips and felt the arousal clearly present there. The thought that he wanted her, just her, nearly undid her. The thought, need, to have him close to her, became all consuming. She touched his loin more thoroughly, drawing a grunt from him that made her insides quiver with anticipation, the exact complications of its rather considerable size completely lost on her.

Cole nearly lost it when her warm, soft hand slipped past his pants and grasped at his length. He closed his eyes and groaned, his grip tightening on her for a fraction. He struggled to keep himself in check when those slender fingers started moving along him, squeezing gently, almost teasingly with every pass. He grunted and flexed his hips, clenched a fist to keep in control. She was driving him over the edge, but he had to keep his mind straight. He didn’t want to scare her, or worse: hurt her. She was too pretty, too special, he had to do it right. But she was making it very difficult.

When his hand brushed past her bare thighs, towards her insides, a strangled little moan wormed its way out of Ruby. He wanted to give her pleasure first, make sure that she was ready. Her small, almost cute noises intoxicated him as they echoed in his head. When he felt how moist she already was despite hardly having done anything, that only made it ten times worse. A cry of pleasure escaped Ruby when he carefully but firmly pressed a finger into her warm, welcoming insides, a shiver of sheer need and pleasure pulling through her when he added another. He held her to him as he explored her, held her trembling form and smothered her little cries with a kiss. Ruby kissed back fiercely, her arms clenching around his neck as her fingers dragged patterns into his dark skin, her mind and thoughts succumbing to the pleasure. She cried out against his mouth as it rose to impossible heights, throwing her across the brink.

Ruby whimpered in the aftermath, his continued touch simply igniting the fire all over again. She pawed at his shoulders, struggling to articulate words. “P-please,” she muttered, mewling when he pressed his fingers further inside her. “N-need you. Now. Please.” She didn’t bother to try and form a sentence. Words tumbled from her lips as she tried to voice what she wanted. Really wanted. The deep groan that escaped Cole at her pleas was almost enough to push her right back up to the edge. She wanted him so much; there were no words to describe it. She pressed herself to him, her stomach and hips against his. “Please, fuck me.”

How could he possibly deny her? It was what he wanted, too. He laid her down carefully, leaning over her as he kissed her, enjoying her hands pulling at his neck, trying to bring him closer to her. He laid down against her, bracing his weight as he cradled the side of her face with one hand, the other guiding her hips. She whimpered, her eyes full of need as she spread her legs for him, even reaching one up, trying to put it around his waist as her arms tugged at his neck. “Please,” she whispered, and it was all he could do to remain in control of himself. When he pressed against her, she trembled and moaned the kind of moan he wanted to hear over and over again. He slowly pressed into her, and it was beyond anything he’d thought.

Ruby almost dropped off the edge into bliss. She clawed at his neck and shoulders, arching her back and pressing her body to his, wanting more. She could barely hold on, pressing her hips towards his, urging him for more, for everything. When he set a slow but firm pace the world quickly shrank down around her until her mind pivoted around only that feeling. Her pleasure sored to impossible new heights, staying there, lingering there without dropping and fading, seemingly endless as the intensity all but drove her to insanity. She didn’t want it to end. Ever.

But when his paced thrusts became more irratic, his groaning louder, more forced, as his own release came in reach, the sensation, the feel and need for it, drove Ruby into a dazzling, mindboggling free fall from her impossible heights, her pleasure soring and spiking as she went, pulling tremors through her as she clung at him with all her strength, her cry pitching across his as both their pleasure relinquished their grasp on them.

Ruby regained but slowly, pleasantly hazy. She kept herself close to him. “I love you,” she said softly, and felt his embrace tighten around her in response. “I love you too.”

* * *

Somehow, at some point, they managed to crawl back to a semblance of sanity. And the surface, too. Once there, they radio-ed command and a King Raven came to pick them up. Marcus and Dom were there to greet them. They looked worse for wear but at least they were alive. The reunion was happy, until either side learned neither had heard of the siblings. They returned home in sullen silence.

“Did you hear anything of Sarah and Damon?” was the first thing Anya inquired when she met them and walked over to Marcus but the dour faces of the others and the way Marcus avoided her gaze told her enough. Her expression fell drastically. “It’ll be quiet without them.”

None of them replied although, uncharacteristically, Marcus pulled her in a firm, one-armed hug. She smiled at him but said nothing. She knew losing teammates was hard on him. That he always felt responsible - responsible for not having been able to keep them all safe. That the gears’ lives were trusted to him, and that he couldn’t back that trust. That he’d failed them. She squeezed his hand gently. His expression remained grim.

“What’s with the fucking funeral faces?”

“Hmpf! I think they take us for bucket-kickers!”

They turned around almost as one. It was unreal but they were really there, striding down the hall towards them as if summoned like two genies from a fucking bottle. Albeit ones covered in blood and slimy chunks of viscera, a trail of disgusting goo behind them and the acid aromas of guts and faeces ahead of them. They were grinning ear-to-ear in almost mirror-like similarity.

“That thing ATE you?!” Ruby exclaimed in disbelief, unintentionally squeezing Cole’s hand in her consternation.

“We bit back,” Damon replied smugly as he threw an arm around his sister’s shoulders. Sarah beamed and patted the mangled lancer she held.

“Took you long enough,” Marcus remarked gruffly, though the hint of a smile wavered across his scowling features.

“Why excuse me, mister punctuality, I wasn’t aware we had a deadline to make,” Sarah rebuked as she hoisted the lancer. “But swinging our lancers around only pissed the fucking beast off more.”

“Had to fucking carve our way through half its innards before it stopped trashing around,” Damon added. “Didn’t bother to start dying until we got to its heart!”

Sarah nodded emphatically. “All three of them!”

“You two are just going to stand here and smell up the place?” Cole interjected their brag storm, smiling broadly at the two besmirched gears. Quite the puddle was forming underneath them.

“Fuck you, Cole,” Damon replied. “You don’t exactly smell like fucking roses either.”

Sarah wrinkled her nose and shied away from Damon, as if only now noticing how horrifically they both stank. “I am going to shower!” she concluded resolutely.

“Hold it right there, fairy butt!” Damon called as he grabbed the back of her armour and pulled her back. “You aren’t going to fucking use up all our hot water again.”

“What? Afraid it will shrink?” Sarah retorted as she wrenched herself loose – covered in muck as they were, it wasn’t that hard. She turned and put her hands on her hips. Grinning.

Damon stepped right up to her, nose pressed to nose and their bodies all but touching. “It’ll still be bigger than yours.”

Sarah’s eyes narrowed dangerously. Damon grinned victoriously. And then she shoved her knee into his crotch. Damon gasped for breath as his hands reflexively went to his maltreated loins, dropping his lancer with a clatter and a curse. Now it was Sarah who grinned in victory. And then promptly turned on her heels and dashed off, sliding and skidding on her soaked boots as she went, in the general direction of the communal showers.

“Why you little bitch!” Damon wheezed as he gathered himself up and gave chase, equally challenged to keep his footing but dead set on closing the distance.

Anya, who wasn’t as often with them as she would like, watched the episode unfold with rising astonishment and then one eyebrow lifted slowly. “They shower together?”

“They’re rich folks’ siblings,” Marcus shrugged, as if that in and of itself explained everything. “I bet their folks put them in one of them little pool baths together during summer all the time when they were brats.”

“They're still brats,” Dom remarked, and Anya smiled at the grin that twitched at the corner of Marcus' lips.

Cole leaned sideways to Ruby, suppressing a grin as he said, softly so only she could hear: “when do you reckon the showers will be safe again so we can use them?”

**Author's Note:**

> NOTE: A lot of time and hard work went into the creation and publication of this story and as such it is very dear to me. I would love to hear what you thought of it. And please, share this story freely but credit me and link back to me. Thank you!


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